Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Summer Garden - and Another Good Show


















 Summer Garden
Oil on seven canvases, 34x64
I am gratefully celebrating another good show! 

Stockley Gardens, in downtown Norfolk, is a lovely, shady neighborhood of late Victorian homes. Some are still one-family homes; some are apartments or condos. I was directly across the street from one with big, screened-in porches where it would be great to have a nap in a hammock or spend the afternoon reading.

The show was in this lovely park, and I had the great good fortune to be under a tree, and near a gorgeous display of flowers that were for sale as a fund-raiser. The entire event was to raise funds for and awareness of Hope House Foundation, which helps adults with developmental disabilities.

Here are a couple photos of the area by my tent:




I set up on Friday afternoon. It poured Friday night, and it poured Saturday as I drove to the show. Poured so hard I could hardly see. But the sky cleared as I pulled into Norfolk, and happily, my tent held and, inside, my space was dry. Others in the park were not so lucky.

People came out in droves, in spite of the weather, and they bought. The very best thing for me was that both days, people bought my art moments after the show opened.

I hadn't realized the psychic toll that the early-day stretches of no sales take on me. So I need to be better prepared for this!

At any rate, I had excellent sales on both days. The buyers were about the most delightful people you'd ever want to meet, and I am so happy that they responded so strongly to my paintings. I  feel honored that my art is going to hang in their homes.

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'SUMMER GARDEN' is a huge experiment for me. It's a seven-canvas painting, and I think it's really interesting, fun, bold, captivating.

Sure, it will be hard to hang (the peg board I'm using in the photo makes it pretty much impossible to line it up correctly) - but what a splash in the right room! I've included a couple photos, below, of the piece in progress.


The very start of it 

Midway through

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ONE OF THE VERY EXCELLENT THINGS that happened during the show was running into a colleague from the Times Herald-Record. Dianna Cahn left the Record to work for Stars & Stripes, where she found herself in the front lines in Afghanistan and other places. Dangerous, difficult, important work. She's now writing military news for the Virginian-Pilot. It was a delight to see her again! 


***

p.s., APPARENTLY, the video of grass blowing that I referenced in my most recent post didn't come through when the blog was emailed. Some folks couldn't make it work from the blog itself, either! Having no knowledge with which to fix either situation, I uploaded it to YouTube, so if you want to see it, here you go: Click here! 
***
Dog of the Day

THE DOG OF THE DAY today is my dear Jojo, who is getting gray in the face. She's become a real studio dog, enjoying hanging around with me while I paint. I hate to think of her growing old, so all these gray hairs really touched me. 








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